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Henny Porten was a German actress who is virtually forgotten today, but in her time, she was one of the most important German actresses of all time (but because she solely made German movies, she is almost unknown in the U.S.). She was similar to Lillian Gish in that she started in early silents, but she predates Gish in that she made her first movie in 1906 at the age of 16. She was very busy throughout the 1910s, and she was a major star in the 1920s, but in the mid 1930s, she ran into a major problem when she refused to divorce her Jewish husband, and that greatly diminished the number of films she was allowed to appear in (but the Nazis took no further action against her because she was so popular). She only made 10 movies between 1931 and 1944, and after the war, she appeared in three more in the 1950s, making her last film in 1955, 49 years after her first film, having appeared in an amazing 180 movies, all of which were made in Germany. She passed away in 1960 at the age of 70. Surely a movie could and should be made of her life!

Important Added Info: Note that this German Ross Postcard has been personally autographed (signed) by Henny Porten! Also note that in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany, it became a common practice to pass out 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" "Ross postcards" to the people who attended a movie. These were postcards that people could send through the mail (each had a picture of one of the movie's stars on it, and standard postcard markings on the other side). But these were also sent to theaters where the stars would make personal appearances, and members of the audience would get the stars to autograph them if they could, but of course, the cards themselves did not come autographed! Sometimes the theaters would use a special "Das Programm Von Heute" that had a blank area on the cover, where they would cut four slits in the upper left and have the "Ross postcards" inserted into that area, so that the audience members would get the program and the card together! We imagine that theaters hoped that audience members would mail the postcards after they saw the movie to friends, telling them how much they enjoyed it, thus creating advertising for the movie. These are often called "Ross autograph cards" by collectors, because moviegoers sometimes obtained autographs on them. Ross postcards are quite collectible, signed or unsigned, but of course, they are worth far more signed. They are often quite rare, because most German paper of all kinds from before World War II was destroyed during the war, due to the massive paper shortages there at that time.

Note that this is from a remarkable collection of 26 items (mostly postcards and German Ross postcards) we were consigned from the estate of the late Jan Wahl. Mr. Wahl wrote over 100 children's books and received many awards, including the Coretta Scott King Prize. Throughout his career, he had a great love of silent film, and he collected many items from silent films, including the 26 items we are currently auctioning. Some of them are framed, because they were on the walls of Mr. Wahl's house! Finally, note that this does not come with a certificate of authenticity, but given the fact that Mr. Wahl purchased this item decades ago, and given that he was an expert in such items, we think it is incredibly likely the signature is authentic. This is a rare opportunity to purchase autographed items from great silent film stars that have a wonderful provenance!

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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